Doctor Who: Thoughts on the farewell of the 10th Doctor.

*Warning: The following article may contain spoilers. If you have not yet seen or plan to watch the following specials and do not want to know what happens please read no further.*

Then end of March is fast approaching, and in just two short weeks, our neighbors across the pond will begin airing a new season of one of Science Fiction's TV mainstays, Doctor Who. I know many Whovians are waiting with bated breath as the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, will be taking over the role most recently played by David Tennant. Many, like me, feel a certain amount of sadness at the deparure of Tennant, but with the new Doctor in charge, I felt that a good look needed to be had at the farewell two-part special of the adventures of the 10th Doctor.
I sat down to watch The End of Time (parts 1 & 2) over the weekend and prepared myself again for the departure of one of my favorite Doctors.

The End of Time is a two-part story that ultimately leads up to the regeneration of the 10th Doctor. The first part of the story revolves around the ressurection of The Master, and how he uses a machine recovered by the Naismith family from the Torchwood Institute to convert all of humanity into a race of Master clones. The only people on earth not effected are Donna, as she's still part Time Lord, Wilf, due to his being placed in a safe room by The Doctor, The Doctor, and two other aliens who were sent to salvage the machine The Master uses.

The second part of this story reveals the true purpose behind the drum beat The Master constantly hears. It was implanted in his mind by the Time Lords to establish a link between Gallifrey and current time. This ultimately leads The Master to create a physical link between Gallifrey and current Earth in an attempt for the Time Lords, headed by Lord President Rassilon (played by Timothy Dalton), to escape the end of the Time War and initiate The Final Sanction, thus ending time and space itself and becoming beings of consciousness. This is, of course, averted by The Doctor, and the planet is saved once again, but at a cost, the 10th Doctor.

The one thing that seems to occupy the mind of The Doctor throughout this story is the knowledge through a prophesy passed to him from the Ood at the beginning of the first part of "The End of Time," where he is told his song (story) is coming to an end, and that before the end "he will knock four times." The whole episode people are led to believe that it is The Master who will kill The Doctor, but that is just not the case. As Rassilon and the Time Lords begin to bring back Gallifrey, The Doctor does something very unusual, he draws a gun and aims it first at Rassilon, then at The Master, then back at Rassilon, and finally back at The Master, and he then tells The Master to move out of the way as he shoots the device that links both worlds together in time. Rassilon then aims his gauntlet at The Doctor as he readies to kill The Doctor, but The Doctor is told to move by The Master who then unleashes energy attacks on Rassilon just as Gallifrey and the rest of the Time Lords are sent back into the Time War.

The Doctor is happy that he is alive, and he can hardly believe it, however, he then hears four knocks on the glass door to the Nuclear Bolt room that powered the machine that linked Earth to Gallifrey. Inside is Wilf, The Doctor then goes into a very uncharacteristic speech about how it's not fair that he has to die, and how much more good he could do if he were able to live, but in the end he turns to Wilf, who is pleading with him not to save him, and says "Wilfred, it's my honor." as The Doctor enters the twin room to the Nuclear Bolt and presses the release button allowing Wilf to escape being irradiated. The Doctor, however, absorbs all the radiation, but does not immediately regenerate.

The story ends with the Doctor travelling to visit all of his former companions, and ends with a visit to Rose Tyler at the start of 2005 before she met him for the first time. He then goes back to the TARDIS and starts it up as his regeneration begins. His last words are, "I don't want to go." Then he regenerates explosively causing massive damage to the interior of the TARDIS. Thus the 11th Doctor appears, in the form of Matt Smith, and we get a small introduction to an energetic, young, Doctor.

This story was a very emotionally charged affair to be sure. I was on the edge of my seat for both parts, and towards the end I was literally in tears as David Tennant's Doctor was about to regenerate. I didn't want him to go either. Overall, the episode had the same amount of intensity as we've come to expect from Russel T. Davies when writing series closers.

I think this is definitely a fitting farewell for the old garde, as Julie Gardner, Russel T. Davies, and David Tennant were moving on. It also marks the passing of the reigns to very capable hands in Steven Moffat and Matt Smith, who I am sure will make the adventures of the 11th Doctor every bit as edge of your seat exciting as the last four series have been.